It seems the Bruins’ days of getting the benefit of the doubt are over. That's the message after Brendan Shanahan slapped forward Brad Marchand with a five game suspension for his latest stunt, a low-bridge hit on Sami Salo, and it isn't the worst thing to come from this whole fiasco.

Say what you will about the suspension (the hit, though not punished in the past, was both dangerous and dirty), but you can’t deny that this whole mess, which has included a war of words in the media between the Canucks and the Bruins and an explanatory video from Shanahan, makes one thing clear:

Like it or not, the Bruins have a reputation, and it isn’t a good one.

Put aside the whole Marchand fiasco for now, and think back to the first period of Saturday’s game, when Milan Lucic was tossed for leaving the bench to join an altercation at 3:54. Be completely honest – considering the NESN cameras weren’t showing the bench as it happened – did you think Lucic was actually getting on the ice and then, being mindful of the rules, stepping back on to make sure he wasn’t doing anything wrong?

Of course not. Nobody did. They figured that Lucic was leaving the bench to catch up to the gaggle of Canucks who had jumped Shawn Thornton.

As it turned out, Lucic was doing everything right, and it’s because he double-checked he was following the rules that he got tossed from the game. That step back onto the bench is what created all the confusion, and Lucic ended up being punished for going above and beyond to play by the rules. 

“You go and you do the right thing,” Lucic said. “When there's 6-on-1 and we get picked out of the group, where we're down two men, I don't understand the thinking process behind it, but I guess that's the reputation that we have.”

Bingo. 

That’s the reputation the Bruins have. 

The Stanley Cup champs aren’t seen as being a group of honest, blue-collar workers like they are around these parts. When in doubt, people outside of Boston will assume they’re up to no good. When there’s confusion about a play like Lucic’s, they’ll toss him, perhaps based on his reputation for losing his cool. When Marchand commits a dirty play that others have committed in the past without punishment, the hockey world will react as though he invented some new type of illegal hit. 

Lucic looked at Marchand’s hit on Salo and wondered where the reaction was when Dan Hamhuis low-bridged him in Game 1 of the Cup finals last season. Hamhuis ruptured a testicle on the play, while Lucic, who was playing through injuries in the series, was not hurt on the play. 

“There's definitely similarities. Same point [of contact],” Lucic said. “Just because I didn't get injured, doesn't make it any different. Even for [Keith] Ballard. I saw him do the exact same thing to Jamie McGinn last year against San Jose.”

Maybe it’s because they’re Cup champions, or because they have a couple of players known for playing on the edge in Marchand and Lucic, but the Bruins’ style has not been a favorable one as the league and its fans have become increasingly focused on player safety. It’s a style that other teams are quick to judge, but one the Bruins, who won the Cup with it, are proud of. They’re used to getting criticized for playing differently than other teams, but they’ll tolerate whatever people say – until they’re called dirty. 

“If you look at even the reviews we've had, they've been hits and I think they've been hockey plays,” Gregory Campbell said Monday. “They haven't been stupid plays. You know what? That's the way we play. We're a big, strong physical team. There are guys in here who make a living off being physical. That's the way we have to play. 

“There's a lot of gray areas now and it's hard to make those calls as far as suspensions go. I guess we thrive off the physical play, but I honestly don't think you can look at our team and say we're dirty. I think we're pretty honest.” 

Looking at it objectively and not in the heat of the moment (the latter scenario has yielded the feistiest comments about the Bruins), the B’s ice an honest team, that, like any other team, isn’t immune to crossing the line. Look at the players the team is built around – Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron – and the fan-favorites – Shawn Thornton, Campbell and Andrew Ference, among others – and note that, middle-fingers and soda on the bench aside, they haven’t gotten in trouble with the league. Yet to suggest the Bruins don’t see their players commit the occasional questionable infraction would be naïve. 

The issue is that right or wrong, it seems the outside opinion of it will always be the same. 

“Regardless of if we have a reputation or not, we're still going to go about it the same way,” Lucic said. “We're still going to be team tough. That's what I think makes us such a special group, is that we're able to stick up for each other.”

Claude Julien perhaps best put the Bruins situation into words Monday. All things considered, it’s a situation he can live with.

“Somehow the Bruins happen to be the team that people prefer picking on and think we're the bruisers and we're the example of the league,” said the coach. “We have to live with that, but the one thing we won't do is change our style of play. Our team is built that way. I think we play pretty entertaining hockey. We're a fast team. We're a skilled team. We're also a physical team, and we're Stanley Cup champions, so I don't see why we should change.”